The Central Government has been providing medical assistance to the central hospitals and institutions since the beginning of the spread of novel Coronavirus last year. Various medical equipment provided to States and UTs includes ventilators to augment the existing hospital infrastructure.

But the Health Department of Punjab alleged that the centre has supplied faulty ventilators to a hospital in Faridkot in Punjab. Some media reports claimed that several ventilators are lying unused as a result of technical glitches and other issues.

In response to this, the Union Health Ministry has clarified that the bulk life-saving machines are not faulty but rather require minor repairs. The ministry raised the question on such hospitals and said that media reports who are raising the issue of ventilators being non-functional are without any basis.

Stating the facts, the ministry mentioned that 88 ventilators have been supplied by Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) and five by AgVa. These ventilators were provided by the manufacturers after successful installation and commissioning.

Further, BEL has also informed that the ventilators at GGS medical college hospital are not faulty as their engineers have visited on different occasions to address the issues and complaints by the hospital and effectively carried out minor repairs that were required. The Ministry stated that the engineers have repeatedly demonstrated the functioning of the ventilators to the staff of the hospital authorities.

Furthermore, BEL engineers visited the hospital on Wednesday, May 12 and made five ventilators functional only by replacing a few consumables. They also demonstrated their optimum performance to the GGSMCH authorities, thereby, further making it evident that when operated properly, the ventilators will provide reliable performance.

"Maintenance of correct gas pressures (difference between air pressure and oxygen pressure cannot be more than 10 PSI) and use of proper consumables are essential requirements, without which performance of CV200 ventilators is not guaranteed," said the Ministry.

"Further, the consumables like flow sensors, bacteria filters and HME filters are not being changed by the hospital authorities as per the prescribed norms, or the ventilators are being used without these important consumable items.”
The ventilators are being provided by the Central Government under the PM CARES fund to hospital and medical colleges in states and UTs.

Make-in-India Ventilators have strengthened medical infrastructure of Hospitals

Under the 'Whole of Government' approach, the Central Government has been procuring and providing States/UTs/Central Hospitals/Institutes with essential medical equipment. In view of the shortage of supply of ventilators from abroad, the government encouraged local manufacturers to produce "Make in India" ventilators.

The ventilator models went through rigorous screening, technical demonstration and clinical validation process before they were put into supplies. There are few states that have received the ventilators but the installation process is due. The Union Health Secretary has put it in the notice to such states which have more than 50 ventilators lying uninstalled with them for the last 4-5 months.

In addition to this, the Union Health Ministry has written to States and UTs informing them of the Helpline numbers of the ventilator manufacturers in order to address any technical issues encountered by them.